On April 17-18, Beijing City International School (BCIS) hosted its fourth annual Avenir Business Competition. A total of eight teams from various international schools in Beijing participated in the event, which provided a number of rewarding opportunities for the contestants, mentors, and judges.
Established in 2017 by two seniors at BCIS, Avenir is a business competition designed to encourage high school students to develop business plans for sustainable development. The competition aims to enhance the students’ skills in entrepreneurship, social enterprise thinking, positive networking, and in receiving critical feedback from business professionals.
This year’s event followed a simple, two-day schedule. On the first day, contestants attended a workshop led by an entrepreneur who founded her own innovative sustainability and education venture, and engaged in enriching mentoring sessions with business professionals who offered vital feedback for the students’ business plans.
“The mentors were quite helpful. We got lots of new ideas from them,” explains Perry Kan, a participant of the competition. “The first mentor, even through Zoom, listened carefully and talked about things we never thought of. With her help, our vision was broadened, and we were able to come up with a more mature plan for our business.”
For a business competition like Avenir, it is crucial to provide participants with opportunities to seek help from professional mentors. The guidance from these mentors is invaluable, as it exposes students to new perspectives, and elevates their knowledge on how to form businesses.
The mentors at this year’s competition were amazed by the participants’ business plans, and pleased with their experiences with the students. “I was very impressed by what I saw at Avenir 2021. The business plans were very well designed, and all had a lot of potential. As we looked at how the teams were designed, the members all complimented each other. Working with the teams, you could see the raw ambitions, and the clear leadership,” says Peter Parker, one of the mentors, who is also a data and AI specialist for Microsoft. Another mentor, Angela Zhang, a business development manager at Keru, also shared her experience working with the teams. “The students were very bright and easy to talk with during our conversations,” noted Zhang. “The students all demonstrated strong passion in their business sector, and in-depth knowledge about the targeted industries. The business plans were very organized and clear. Power point slides were well made and had appropriate amount of information which made them very reader friendly.”
On the second day of the Avenir competition, each team pitched their business plan to a panel of judges, who then determined the winning teams.
The first place winner, Mask Up, is a team of four girls from Beijing City International School. Their business idea is to provide customers with original and customizable mask designs that will be illustrated onto fabric masks made from donated secondhand clothing. Mask Up’s vision is to raise awareness about the importance of wearing masks, and to help clients express themselves during the isolation and hardships of COVID-19, while at the same time working towards the goal of sustainability and reduction of textile waste, which perfectly aligns with Avenir’s mission.
First Place Winner: Mask Up (Left to right: Qinglan Du, Laure Boquet, Lisa Hu, Gretchen Zeng)
The prize for first place in the competition was a summer internship at The Bulk House, the first social enterprise in China that promotes zero-waste lifestyles, along with a reward of RMB 3,000 that is to be used for further development of the winning team’s business.
“We’re hoping with this money we can purchase the equipment necessary for making our own fabric masks out of donated clothing,” explains Qinglan Du, the team leader of Mask Up. “This mainly includes sewing materials and sanitary products to make sure the cloth is clean. We’re not sure if this type of mask has a larger market than the ones we’re currently selling, but that’s the general direction because we want to be a step closer to sustainability.”
Bolstered by the success of this year’s competition, Avenir will continue to serve as an opportunity for students to build skills in entrepreneurship, networking, and social business. Students are encouraged to participate in the competition in 2022, and to come together with the goal of envisioning future businesses dedicated to the common good, that work towards sustainable development of our world.
Images: Courtesy of BCIS
